Children’s Voices About the State of the Earth

Abstract

This article presents a large project on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). The project was organised by OMEP, the World Organisation for Early Childhood Education, where the authors were the appointed as project coordinators. The purpose of ESD is to reorient education towards sustainability. The aims of the project were to gather knowledge about children's thoughts, comments and understanding of a picture showing the globe and some children, and to enhance the awareness of ESD among early childhood educators. In 2010, OMEP members in 28 countries interviewed 9,142 children aged 2-8 years. In some countries, such as China and USA, teacher students have been studying ESD and then performed the child interviews, thus involving colleges and universities in an ESD-reorienting process. The result shows that children interpret the drawing of the Globe in many different ways. Most common is the answer that the children are cleaning the globe because it is dirty. But many children also thought that the children on the picture were painting the globe. The motivations given why the children are cleaning or painting were categorised as aesthetical, to take care of an environmental problem and promoting health. Most country reports highlight the fact that the children do not recognise the concept sustainable development. In some countries, it does not exist as a word and there is no translation into their mother tongue. However, many interviewers were amazed by all the knowledge the children showed them. The children had thoughts and ideas to bring up about the state of the earth in relation to sustainability. The result shows that young children have knowledge about the environment, thoughts about environmental issues, the responsibility people carry and ideas about what to do.Résumé Cet article présente un vaste projet sur l'éducation au développement durable (EDD). Le projet a été organisé par l'OMEP, l'Organisation mondiale pour l'éducation préscolaire, et les auteurs en ont été les coordinateurs. Le but de l'EDD est de réorienter l'éducation vers un monde durable. Les objectifs du projet étaient de réunir des connaissances sur les idées, les observations et la compréhension des enfants d'une image montrant le globe terrestre et des enfants, ainsi que de renforcer la prise de conscience de l'EDD parmi les éducateurs de la petite enfance. En 2010, les membres de l'OMEP de 28 pays ont interrogé 9 142 enfants âgés de deux à huit ans. Dans certains pays, comme la Chine et les É tats-Unis, les futurs enseignants ont étudié l'EDD et ont ensuite effectué les interviews auprès des enfants, impliquant ainsi les collèges et les universités dans un processus de réorientation vers l'EDD. Le résultat montre que les enfants interprètent le dessin du globe de plusieurs façons différentes. La réponse la plus commune est que les enfants nettoient la planète parce qu'elle est sale. Mais beaucoup d'enfants pensaient aussi que les enfants sur l'image peignaient le monde. Les raisons invoquées par les enfants pour expliquer que le...

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